ESTIMATED SURPLUS £3,500,000

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 254, 24 July 1944, Page 3

ESTIMATED SURPLUS £3,500,000

Meat Pool Account It is probable that, when all the meat killings to the end of the current season are finally sold, the Kleat Pool Account will show a surplus of not. less than £.'■>.500.000, stales the annual report of the New Zealand .Meat. Producers’ Board. The Meat Poo] Account was created for the main purpose of providing a fund to sustain Ihe value of ewe mutton at a reasonable level, hut. this necessity, states the board's report, has now entirely disappeared, because all ewe mill ton is shipped in the form of frozen carcases, in accordance wilh tiro wishes of the United Kingdom ’.Ministry of Food. Particulars of the .Meat Pool Account have been given iu previous annual reports, but its development is described in the latest slnlonient. The surplus shown to July •“!. 1943, was i'1.553.547. but the report points out this represented (he position only in respect to killings sold up to July 31. 1913, am) that when the complete figures for that season become tivtiilable the credit in respect of the 1942-13 season will be considerably over £2.090.000. The current season’s operations should bring the total surplus in the pool account to E3.p00.000. The original arrangement provided for an allowance of !i per cent, on sales, for .'idiniuistration .and general expenses, bur following representations by the Meat Board this was reduced *o 3-B'hs tier cent, as from Octobor 1. 1943. The Meat Pool Account to July 31, 1943. shows several important items of expenditure, namely: Loss on 1941.-42 season’s ewe mutton after July 31. 1942, £539.351: loss on 1942-13 season's ewe mutton killed up to July 3.1. 1913, 1537.550' .amount written off e.’ipiin] cost of I'lnergency cool stores, canning plant and buildings (one-third of estimated cost of £575.000), £191,060. The following are particulars of the various increases in prices (shown in sterling), which have been paid for fozen meat bv the United Kingdom Government Io Ihe New Zealand Government since the original f.o.b. sterling prices wore fixed in 1939: —From October I, 1941: Beef. 3-Sd.: wether motion. Id.: ewe mutton, .Id.; lamb. 3-Sd.; porkers, Id.; baconers, 3-Bd.; offals —beef, lamb 3-Sd., mnlton pork Id. From October 1, .1942: Beef, 3-IGd.; vo.nl. 3-1 (id.: hoof and veal offal, 3-lImI. : porkers, baconers. Choppers and pork offal. 5 per cent, increase. From October 1. 19-13: Wether and ewe mutton, Id.